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Friday 7 February 2014

Away with the fairies?



I am so lucky - I have a bolt hole to which I occasionally escape.  It is not far away and when I feel the need to be alone I just pack my rucksack with a few things and set off by bus.  The bus drops me in the village at the end of a narrow lane and about half a mile or so down the lane is my sanctuary.  It is very small, a converted farm building, with just a little living room with a wood burning stove and a tiny kitchen area where I cook on a little two-ring camping stove.  My bed is on a mezzanine floor and the warmth from the wood burner keeps that cosy too and I can see the flickering light of the fire as I drop off to sleep.  The building is made of stone and the windows allow plenty of light to come in, the floor is of old wooden boards and there are some traditional rugs and a sofa with lots of cushions, mostly with faded vintage fabric covers, along with a couple of patchwork quilts and crochet throws.  There is a cushioned window seat where I can sit to read and I have a small table and a couple of chairs.  It is all very peaceful and comfortable.  Outside is a small sheltered area paved with mossy old bricks where I have a comfortable wooden seat and a little table and where in summer I might eat my meals or just sit admiring the distant views across the countryside.  I am sure you will have seen pictures in magazines like Country Living of the sort of thing I mean.

When I escape there I spend much of my days walking in the surrounding countryside enjoying the different seasons or occasionally I might take the bus to the coast for a walk by the sea for a change.  Or I might just stay at home and write or read or maybe do some knitting or even to do nothing at all.  The village has a shop where I can buy what I need and since there is no electricity at my little house - so no fridge - I walk to the shop most days for fresh milk and whatever else I need.  It's beautiful along the lane especially in spring when the frothing cow parsley fills the hedgerows and there are wild flowers too, primroses, celandines, blue bells and lady smocks each in their turn.  I love it at any time of year as every season has something to enjoy.  Sometimes I might spend a winter's afternoon reading by the fire with a cup of something hot to hand or maybe spend time cooking up things I like for my supper and not having to take anyone else's preferences into account!  In summer I sometimes sit outside with my knitting or perhaps my pen and paper to write.  No computers here of course!

Somehow I feel more in touch with Nature here, perhaps it is the lack of electricity and the fact that when it gets dark the tiny living area is lit only by candles and an old oil lamp along with the light from the fire and on summer evenings I am aware of the twilight gradually fading until the sky is deep indigo and sprinkled with stars and the bats are flitting about.  There is something calming about living with natural light - short days and long evenings without the brightness of electric lights in winter and the longer days of summer when it gets dark so gradually and I am either outside or sitting with my book on the window seat catching the last rays of the sun and watching night gradually fall.  It's all so natural to want to go to bed early in winter and to be more energetic and wakeful in the summer months.

Of course this is just what it sounds like - a daydream so that if I suddenly decide that maybe I would prefer a different bolt-hole somewhere else then I can change things instantly!  I have always had a tendency to daydream and my daydreams have most often featured houses.  Maybe this is because we never had a house of our own until I was married - my mother and I lived our lives in other people's homes and I shared a bedroom with her until I was 14 when she got a job in a house where I had my own room (as of course did she!) for the very first time.  As a child when I visited a friend for the first time I always returned to regale my Mum with the details of the home and what it was furnished with.  I have read recently that daydreaming is good for us and also makes us more creative so perhaps if I spend time doing so it is no bad thing.  And as the South Pacific song says , "If you don't have a dream how you gonna have a dream come true?"!!

The photo is from "Little Grey Rabbit and the Wandering Hedgehog" a book I have had for more than 60 years and it tells the story of how she met the wandering hedgehog and befriended him, making him a warm coat out of patchwork so he would not be cold on his travels in winter.  In this picture Hare has visited him to see what he is like and been persuaded to try a puff of the hedgehog's pipe filled with meadowsweet baccy and to see the pictures he dreams up in the smoke of the places he will visit and so on.  I wonder if these days it would be taken as a hallucinogenic drug he was smoking and not just meadowsweet - or maybe meadowsweet IS hallucinogenic I don't know but as an innocent child I wouldn't have thought of this any more than I might have wondered if Noddy and Big Ears were gay - a word which had a totally different meaning then anyway!

So back to the title - am I away with the fairies as this place doesn't exist except in my imagination or is this just a harmless, stress reducing pastime?  Do you ever join me in drifting off into a daydream?  And if so what of do you dream I wonder. 

23 comments:

  1. I would very very tempted to gatecrash your daydream, it sounds so perfect! Have you seen the small house movement? If you google tiny or small houses you will see what I mean (back to modern technology...) They are so idyllic, but I sometimes wonder if they are only possible if your "stuff" is in storage to be accessed with needed!

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  2. Oh my goodness!! I was reading and thinking how lucky you were to have such a gorgeous little bolt hole!! You described it so perfectly! And enticingly! I thought it was real….And I want one!!
    I think you are so fortunate to be able to dream such lovely, detailed dreams about tranquil spaces and faraway places! How relaxing it would be to be able to 'be' there. Thanks so much for sharing!!

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  3. My great-grandfather kept his parent's small house exactly as it was when he was a child. If one did not know where it was, it was impossible to find! He had a big white house on one of his farms but this house was just like one built when it was built;1823. I was there a few times as a child and loved it...the wide porches, big windows, fireplaces everywhere, the kitchen pump at the sink, the well and springs. I often dream of being back there, that is now my house, peaceful and hidden away in the hills of Central Kentucky. Not long ago, I found the house...falling down now, but still standing. It's part of a gentleman's farmer's horse farm and not used at all for years.

    My great-grandfather told me that electricity affected people...and having a place to get away was very important and so was nature and wild places. He had lived like that and oh, really, I would love that too.

    Thank you for bringing that memory back again.
    Take care!

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  4. Got a third of the way in.....and realised, yes, a daydream!
    but what a lovely daydream.
    Little Grey Rabbit and her friends were very much part of my childhood and I still have some of the original books.

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  5. I go there! Or to a tiny house on an isolated Greek Island, or in a wild part of France ( the Ardeche maybe?) just as I'm dropping off to sleep! Lovely post, thank you. C x

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  6. That sounds like a lovely place to escape to, if only in your day dreams, and we all need day dreams to keep us going. x PS please can I come with you next time you're visiting!! x

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  7. Well that all sounds idyllic , the next time you go I would love to go with you!
    I love the little image...as you might expect! :)
    V x

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  8. As I was reading I was totally bought in till getting near the end then I was cringing scrolling down in case this perfect place didn't exist. I feel so sad and I can see it in my mind's eye. I daydream in full colour detail prolifically too and sometimes it is an alternate reality of the loveliest kind.

    I so wish I could come and visit you in your little bolt hole and find out more about you but hey, its a day dream so I think I'll pop over. It'll be no bother as I'll be able to use the little sofa bed in the corner!

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  9. I love daydreaming, I do it all the time. So glad to hear that it's healthy! I love your bolthole, it's utterly blissful. As of course befits a good daydream.

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  10. Well Jane, I was almost to the end of this delightful post before I realised ... its a daydream of course! But what a wonderfully idylic place you have conjured up for us.

    I always daydream about travelling and living a carefree bohemian life with writers and artists! I'm influenced by the books I read and my imagination just goes with it ...

    A lovely read, thank you.

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  11. I used to love my caravan in Glastonbury, but now we live here, I rather miss it! i expect we will get another in the future.

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  12. Daydreams are lovely things. I haven't done much of that lately and rather miss it. You've inspired me.

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  13. I read and read and read and all the time I was thinking " Where's Dave ?? She must have left him at home !!" Liked the line about pleasing yourself what you prepared for dinner !!

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  14. PS. My daydreams often are about pretty little cottages in English villages. Lucky for me they sometimes come true ! Did you ever see that dear little cottage in Martinstown we stayed in ?

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  15. I LOVE your bolt hole and wish my imagination was that good to have one of my own...
    Rose H
    xx

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  16. I started off believing this was true! A liitle house on the edge of the woods with a beautiful picket fenced cottage garden would be my sanctuary. I would plant seeds and pick flowers and bake and craft and enjoy the company of a persian cat. The sun would always shine but never get too hot. I would paddle in the stream by the side of the cottage, listen to birdsong and sketch my surroundings. I would stay forever young.......who is away with the fairies now?!!! x

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  17. Jane, I was convinced at the start of this post and was wondering which village this bolt hole was in, thinking how could you make a cup of tea without electricity etc etc and then the penny dropped. You evoke the atmosphere of your special place so well I could see it in my mind's eye. If I had that ability to paint 'word pictures' I think I'd daydream too. The only time I am aware that I daydream is when I'm the passenger in the car. You've met my lovely husband - who never fills vacuums with idle talk- so car journeys are long and quiet, punctuated by Radio 4, Classic FM or silence. I'm oft known to wander in those times but let's not admit to being 'away with the fairies'!

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  18. Oh how I loved this post - and I'm pleased to know I'm not alone. Yes, I have imaginary bolt holes - a selection in fact, which I tend to use depending on the weather, so if I need to warm up, I go to my Caribbean hut on the edge of the sea, with the hammock in the trees, or occasionally I go to my tent in the Sahara... My other favourite is the canal boat, which I'm keen on when it's raining for some obscure reason, oh and I also have a small castle in Herefordshire for when I need something a bit grander. See, I don't just dream in stitches! :)

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  19. Oh how did I miss this post? What a lovely place to go and escape...I have similar places, very much like this one, with no electricity, phones or other such disturbances...some are based on memories of places I have stayed and some purely from my fantasies...always good I think - we all need a special place now and again and if it isn't virtual then this is a good compromise.

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  20. What a wonderful post! I daydream constantly ... it is good for the soul ... M x

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  21. I loved this Jane, but I had an inkling near the beginning that this was a story--but a wonderful story at that! What a dreamy little place you have traveled to. I want to live in your village and you can come over for tea (I'll have coffee) and we'll talk about spring and flowers, and your travels. :D

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  22. Wouldn't it be love-e-ly! In fact last week my son and I disappeared down to South Wales to just such a bolt-hole (but it did have electricity thank goodness) for a few days - sadly it was only "on loan". I'll post a few photos on my blog soon. I love Little Grey Rabbit and have a collection myself. Have you ever read any of Alison Uttley's books about her childhood and the countryside - you would LOVE them! Ambush of Young Days is my favourite but they will all transport you to another time and place.

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  23. What a lovely little place! As I kept reading, I was convinced the house was real. It's an amazing dreamworld to escape to from our everyday lives. My grandparents used to have a house like that in the countryside by a river. No electricity, no city noses, no rush. Just peace and calm. I often think about that sweet place. Thank you for sharing your special dream world with us!

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